The present invention relates to electrostatic charge deionizing lightning conductors.
More particularly, it relates to an electrostatic charge deionizing lightning conductor which incorporates a system capable of expanding the electric influence of a high voltage atmospheric field.
In the event of electric atmospheric charge an electronic discharge can occur between clouds of rain or between one of said clouds and the earth. The discharge is visible with sinuous path and irregular ramifications, sometimes from several kilometers which is a phenomena known as a lightning. At the same time, a sound wave also occurs called “thunderbolt”.
The way in which the clouds are charged with electricity is not known, but most possess a negative charge at the bottom and a positive charge at the top. The different hypotheses explaining how such polarization occurs may be split into two categories: those stating that ice is required and those stating it is not required. Many weathermen think that ice is a necessary factor because thunderbolt is generally not observed until ice has been formed in the higher layers of the clouds.
Some experiments have shown that when water dissolutions are frozen, the ice gains a negative charge while the water remains positively charged. If after starting the solidification, the air which is coming up draw out droplets of water from the frozen particles, such droplets will concentrate at the top of the cloud, and the ice, in bigger aggregates, will go down the bottom.
On the other hand, some experiments have shown that the bigger water drops, falling more quickly, become negative, while the droplets which are falling slower, become electropositive. Thus, the polarization of a cloud may be produced by the different falling speed of the drops either big or small. As the negative charge is formed at the bottom of the cloud it leads to another positive charge on the earth located below, which acts as a second plate of a huge condenser.
When the electric potential between two clouds or between one cloud and the earth reaches a sufficient range (about 10.000 V per cm), the air is ionized along the narrow path, and the flash of a lightning occurs. It is believed that it is the way in which the negative charge is carried to the earth and thus the total negative charge of the surface of the earth is preserved.
It is also thought that the clouds electric polarization may be the cause of the precipitation and not a consequence thereof and that the electric potential existing between the ionsphere—the atmosphere higher layer—and the earth leads to the polarization.
According to this theory, the hot air flow ascending through a cloud carries with it particles having a positive charge which are accumulated at the top of the cloud and which attracts negative charges from the ionosphere. These later are directed to the bottom of the cloud by powerful descending currents of the periphery of the cloud. This way it is prevented that opposite charges neutralize each other. 90% the thunderbolt which go from clouds to the earth are negative; the rest consists in positive flashes. Less often thunderbolt may occur from the earth up the clouds, namely from the top of mountains of from high located objects such as radio antennas.
Surveys with quick motion cameras evidenced that most of the thunderbolt flashes are multiple events composed of up to 42 main “thunderbolts” each being preceded by a guiding thunderbolt.
They all follow an initial ionized path which can be ramified with the current flow. As the duration of the thunderbolt is not over 0,0002 s, the periods of time between each thunderbolt occupies most of the duration of a “flash”. The so-called sheet thunderbolt, are but the reflection of an ordinary thunderbolt in the clouds, the so-called ball-shaped thunderbolt is a rare phenomenon in which the discharge is a slow and luminous ball-shaped discharge which some times explode and some times it simply fades out.
In the prior art passive lightning conductors are known which are provided with a starting device such as a “Franklin” for having multipoint systems. The operation of such conductors is based on the ionization and excitation, either constant or pulsed of the electro-atmospheric field for achieving the basic and essential objective, which is to try to collect the discharge from the thunderbolt.
It is worthwhile mentioning also radioactive lightning conductors which for obvious reasons have been abandoned, and are no longer used and their radioactive sources have been recovered in a suitable way and stored in areas for special residues.
Other protection devices against the electro-atmospheric phenomenon must be mentioned which are based on filtering high frequencies and the harmonic components, having available at least two electric connections external to the head which are mainly constituted of elements such as bobbins, resistors and condensers internally connected, all of them characterized in that they contain silica sands absorbing the thermal inertia when the whole of the system is operating.